Tom Pryce

Thomas Maldwyn Pryce was a British racing driver from Wales, who competed in Formula One from to.
Pryce started his career in Formula One with the small Token team, making his only start for them at the 1974 Belgian Grand Prix. Shortly after winning the Formula Three support race for the 1974 Monaco Grand Prix, Pryce joined the Shadow team and scored his first points in Germany in only his fourth race. He later claimed two podium finishes, his first in Austria in 1975 and the second in Brazil a year later. He won the non-championship Race of Champions in 1975, becoming the first—and to this date, only—Welsh driver to win a Formula One race; he also became the first Welsh driver to lead a Grand Prix, as well as the first to achieve a pole position, at the 1975 British Grand Prix. Pryce was noted for his ability in wet-weather conditions.
Pryce set the fastest lap during the rain-affected practice sessions for the 1977 South African Grand Prix. During the Grand Prix, he collided at high speed with a safety marshal, Frederik Jansen van Vuuren, and both men were killed. A memorial to Pryce was unveiled in 2009 in his home town of Ruthin.

Personal and early life

Pryce was born on 11 June 1949 in Ruthin, Denbighshire, Wales, to Jack and Gwyneth Pryce. Jack had served in the Royal Air Force as a tail-gunner on a Lancaster bomber before joining the local police force. Gwyneth was a district nurse. Pryce's older brother, David, died at the age of three leaving Tom an only child for much of the time he was growing up, although his parents did foster a young girl called Sandra for a while. Pryce, known to his friends as Mald, attended Nantglyn Primary School, Denbighshire. The family later moved to Towyn, Denbighshire, due to Jack's job.
Pryce took an interest in cars while driving a baker's van at the age of ten, before informing his parents that he wanted to be a racing driver. During an interview with Alan Henry in 1975, he stated that he had wanted to become a pilot, but thought he was not intelligent enough. Like many future Formula One drivers, Pryce had a childhood racing hero. In his case, it was Lotus's Scottish driver Jim Clark. Pryce's mother recalled that he was very upset when Clark died at the Hockenheimring in April 1968. His father noted that "he was very upset when Jochen Rindt was killed, too". After he left school at 16, Pryce's mother insisted that he take an apprenticeship as a tractor mechanic at Llandrillo Technical College, giving him "something to fall back on", as she put it, if his career as a racing driver was unsuccessful.
In 1975, Pryce married Fenella "Nella" Warwick-Smith, whom he met at a disco in Otford, Kent in 1973. Following the death of her husband, Nella went on to run an antiques store in Fulham, London with Janet Brise, the widow of Tony Brise, who died in a plane crash in 1975 with fellow racing driver, Graham Hill and later moved to France.

Helmet design

Pryce's helmet design was, in comparison to later drivers', simple and restrained. His helmet was plain white all over until 1970. At that year's race at Castle Combe, his father asked Pryce to make his helmet stand out more so that he could easily identify him in a pack of cars. Pryce added five black vertical lines to his helmet, placed just above his visor. From that time, the only change to this design was the addition of a Welsh flag to the side of his helmet in 1974.

Career

Pre–Formula One

1969–1971: early years

Pryce's first steps into motor racing came at the Mallory Park circuit in Leicestershire when he was 20. Pryce was put through his paces by Trevor Taylor, an ex-Team Lotus driver and old teammate of Pryce's childhood hero Clark. He later became a star in the Formula 5000 series. From there, Pryce went on to compete in the Daily Express Crusader Championship, a series run by Motor Racing Stables for racing school pupils using Lotus 51 Formula Ford cars. Races alternated between the Brands Hatch and Silverstone circuits; Pryce made his début at the former. "The races were £35 a time. But I sold my Mini and my parents offered all the help and encouragement I could wish for" Pryce recalled to Alan Henry.
The prize for the overall winner of the series was a Formula Ford Lola T200 worth £1,500. The series was decided at the last round, held at Silverstone, the day before the 1970 Formula One International Trophy. Pryce qualified on the third row for the race, which was held in rain. Jack Pryce remembered that his son was rubbing his hands in delight: "he always loved racing in the rain". The early part of the race was led by a driver called Chris Smith but then heavy rain started and Pryce was able to catch up with Smith and overtake him before winning by a comfortable margin. He was given his Lola by Sir Max Aitken.
Pryce took his new car to Brands Hatch, where he was allowed to house it in one of the old stables at the bottom of the paddock. Pryce soon abandoned his farming career and moved to a guest house in West Kingsdown, near the Brands Hatch circuit. Pryce continued to make a name for himself during 1971, entering a new twin-seater Sportscar category called Formula F100, which he won with what was described by motorsports author David Tremayne as "embarrassing ease". He then moved up to Formula Super Vee, driving the then-choice Royale RP9, for Team Rumsey Investments, and soon made his Formula Three début for the same manufacturer at Brands Hatch.

1972–73: lower formulae

In that race at Brands Hatch, Pryce took an unfancied Royale RP11 to first place in the Formula Three support race for the 1972 Formula One Race of Champions against many established Formula Three drivers such as Roger Williamson, Jochen Mass and James Hunt. So large was Pryce's advantage at the end of the race, many of the other teams voiced an opinion that Pryce's car had run the race underweight; it turned out that the circuit's weighbridge certificate had expired and everyone's cars had been underweight. Pryce retired from the leading group in the following two rounds at Oulton Park and Zandvoort, and then during practice for the support race of the 1972 Monaco Grand Prix his car came to a stop at Casino Square after a wire had come loose. He had exited his car to correct the problem when Peter Lamplough lost control of his car and struck the Royale RP11. Pryce was knocked into a shop window and broke a leg.
Pryce was back in action two weeks after his incident in Monaco. Pryce also ran in the Formula SuperVee series, winning the series by a comfortable margin, "I won just about every race I went in for" Pryce recalled. A run with Royale's Formula Atlantic works team was also in store for Pryce during 1972, where he took pole position for the final three rounds of the championship and won the final round at Brands Hatch.
Pryce continued racing in Formula Atlantic in 1973, winning three races. Royale soon had plans to enter Formula Two, such was the Welshman's talent. The ambition to run in the Formula Two championship was planned to be financially fuelled by a Liechtenstein driver, Manfred Schurti. These plans only resulted in one of Royale's F2 cars being built before the project was scrapped and Bob King, the head of Royale, left the company.
Following an invitation to test one of his cars, Pryce found himself racing in the Formula Two series with Ron Dennis's Rondel Racing outfit. His best result for the team came at the Norisring where he was leading the race until a brake failure meant he had to give up first place to teammate Tim Schenken. At the end of 1973, Pryce won the Grovewood Award for his efforts during the year. Jack Pryce recalled that his son did not want to win the award, as he thought it was "a jinx on a driver's career".

Formula One

1974: Token

At the age of 25, Pryce graduated to Formula One, the highest category of circuit racing defined by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, motorsport's world governing body, joining the newly formed Token Racing team. The team was created by Tony Vlassopulos and Ken Grob after the original Token team closed down in 1973 due to a lack of financial backing which had led to the end of the previous Rondel Racing outfit. Pryce was given the seat thanks to his backing from Titan Properties, and what David Tremayne described as "evident promise". Pryce made his début for the team at the BRDC International Trophy, a non-championship Formula One event held at Silverstone, but lack of an airbox and an engine cover, along with his shortage of experience in the car, made him the slowest driver of the 16 competitors during qualifying: 26 seconds slower than James Hunt's Hesketh in pole position. The Welshman retired 15 laps into the race with a gear linkage problem. Pryce's World Championship début came at the 1974 Belgian Grand Prix, where he qualified in 20th place, three seconds slower than the fastest time set by Clay Regazzoni. Once again, he failed to finish, completing 66 laps before retiring after a collision with Jody Scheckter's Tyrrell.
Pryce was refused entry to the 1974 Monaco Formula One Grand Prix, as he was deemed "inexperienced". Tony Vlassopulos decided to prove a point and replaced normal Formula 3 driver Buzz Buzaglo, with Pryce for the supporting Formula Three race, driving for Ippokampos Racing, in a March 743, which he won by 20.8 seconds.

1974–77: Shadow

1974

Following his drive in Monaco, and a short spell in Formula Two, Pryce was signed by Shadow as replacement for Brian Redman, who had in turn replaced the late Peter Revson. Pryce made his début for the team in Holland. He qualified in 11th position, less than 0.4 seconds slower than his teammate, Jean-Pierre Jarier, who was in his second full season of Formula One competition. Pryce retired on the first lap of the race after a collision with James Hunt at the first corner broke his Shadow DN3's rear suspension. Pryce qualified third in his second Grand Prix for the team, in France, 0.32 seconds slower than Niki Lauda's pole position time but nearly half a second quicker than Jarier. Once again, Pryce's race ended at the first corner, when minor contact with Carlos Reutemann's Brabham deflected Pryce's Shadow into the path of James Hunt. The second collision between the two British drivers in as many races eliminated them both. Later in the season, Pryce received 100 bottles of champagne for finishing fastest in the practice session for the at Brands Hatch. He went on to qualify on the fourth row of the starting grid.
Pryce scored the first point of his career in Germany, at the most challenging circuit on the F1 calendar at the time, the 14.2 mile Nürburgring circuit. After finishing 6th from 11th on the grid, he then qualified in 16th for the next Grand Prix in Austria, but spun off on lap 22, ending his race. He qualified in 22nd place in Italy, and finished 12 places higher. His season ended with an engine failure in Canada, and the Shadow severely off the pace at Watkins Glen in the United States. At the end of the season Pryce was equal 18th in the Drivers' Championship with veteran Graham Hill and Vittorio Brambilla.